Photography is a passion as is photography equipment. Film cameras, Digital DSLRs, Rangefinders…love it all. Apparently a common passion because there are innumerable websites devoted to it. Some of the ones I visit regularly are below.

Daily Reads

Visual Science Lab: This is the Kirk Tuck’s blog. Kirk is a photographer from my hometown about Austin, Texas. Kirk’s easy writing style about a variety of photography topics ranging from equipment reviews, photography techniques his awesome son Ben combined by photos of my favorite town draw me in everyday. A caution, reading this blog can cost you! I’ve bought more equipment as a result of the blog than any other. Kirk likes to experiment with different equipment. The difference between me and him—he knows how to sell of the equipment at the right time. I don’t.

The Online Photographer (aka T.O.P): I’ve been reading Mike Johnston on photography since he wrote for Luminous Landscape and Photo.net (two more of my favorite blogs). Mike is the editor, organizer and primary writer for T.O.P. It is well written, with a definite style and opinion. He is the former editor of PHOTO Techniques magazine. Guest authors such as Ctein have a long history in the industry and a depth of knowledge.

Petapixel: Petapixel is a site that curates photography related stories from around the web. It’s always worth a quick scan to catch up on the stories across the internet.

fStoppers: Fstoppers is another community based photography news website featuring the latest industry news and original articles. I frequently find out about the best photography deals on this site.

Photography Subreddit: Reddit can be a bit juvenile and sometimes downright offensive—so if you’re easily offended likely best to skip it. The photography sub-reddit is a much milder place and another place to ask questions, discover new resources and now and then find awesome content.

Weekly Reads

The Luminous Landscape: The Luminous Landscape was one of the early photography blogs on the web—founded in 1999. As it’s names indicates this web site focuses on nature photography (I still want to go on one of the Antarctica tours—anyone want to fund me?). The site also sells tutorials, has great articles on the art of photography (composition, color, etc.) and has equipment reviews.

Photo.net: Phillip Greenspan started Photo.net in 1993—even before Lulu. It is the largest and most active online community of photographers. Need a question answered? Want to start a discussion on a topic that’s vexing you? Check out their extensive forums. Post a picture to get a critique. Look for equipment reviews (though honestly you can find more in depth reviews elsewhere). I’ve been going to the site long enough to remember Phil’s samoyed Alex and when he sold of his company to Red Hat.

Now and Then

The Digital Picture: Another long time site (established over 10 years ago). It’s my go to place to figure out what lens I need to buy for a particular situation. They started by doing reviews of Canon optics but have broadened out to a variety of different manufacturers. In addition to lens reviews you can find reviews of DSLRs and photography accessories.

Photoquotations: Looking for that perfect quote for your photography article? Perhaps a quote to inspire you? Check out Photoquotations.com.

DPreview: Need a detailed review of that newest digital camera? DPreview will give you the most comprehensive review of photography equipment, news from photo shows, as well as industry rumors. Independently run for years, it is now owned by mega-vendor Amazon.

Stuck in Customs: You have to like HDR to like Trey Ratcliff’s photography travelogue. Arguably the person who popularized the genre. Trey was an Austinite who moved to New Zealand. I met him because I noticed a lot of his pictures were in our little neighborhood. Turns out he lived right up the street from me and was a true gentleman when we met for coffee. Trey has also turned into a designer and marketer for equipment (Peak Design’s messenger camera bag), software and tutorials.

The Sony a7R II is the “it” camera for 2016 with a 42.4 megapixel back-side illuminated full frame sensor, phase detection auto focus, and 5-axis auto stabilization. Sony improved the shutter to reduce vibration and doubled the expected life of the shutter. I n addition to a 3″ tilting LCD the a7R II also has a huge XGA OLED viewfinder with an upgraded magnification of 0.78X.

At the moment the a7R II still doesn’t offer lossless 14 bit RAW–a problem that is to be fixed with a firmware upgrade shortly. The a7R II still suffers from short battery life–Sony has included a second battery with the camera and you will likely want to buy more. Professional photographers will be unhappy that Sony has only one card slot–makes it impossible to have in camera backup copies of your images.

Would you like to learn more?

Sony a7R II Reviews

Sony A7 Mark II Hands-On Field Test by Chris Niccolls and professional photographer Kyle Marquardt at TheCameraShowTV is a balanced video review of the newest offering from Sony.

Sony a7R II Tips

Sony a7R II Recommended Accessories

Peak Design Slide Peaks Edition Lassen Camera Strap

Peak Design’s Slide Camera Slide has quickly become a favorite. The strap can function as a Sling, Neck or shoulder strap. It has a quick connect/disconnect which makes it easy to remove the strap when you mount the camera on a tripod. You can replace the camera strap with Peak Design Camera Hand Clutch Strap. Also comes with an Arca-Swiss compatible plate (although I’d replace that with an L plate).

Foto & Tech IR Wireless Remote Control

You could buy the Sony version of the remote control for the Sony A7rii or Foto & Tech’s generic version for a lot less money

We love the folks at Really Right Stuff and Kirk Photo, we really do. If money is not an object go ahead and grab their L bracket. However, if you want a compatible bracket at less than a fifth the cost consider the offering from Chinese manufacturer Neewer.

Gariz Genuine Leather XS-CHA7IIOR Camera Metal Half Case

Need a bit of style and protection for the Sony A7rII? Gariz’s case in Orange will fit the bill.

Website and Blogs are adequate if you need information but sometimes you have a unique question that is best answered by another enthusiast. There are a wide variety of forums on the Internet where people will help you answer your specific questions.

An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site. It originated as the modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board, and a technological evolution of the dialup bulletin board system. A great deal of my initial knowledge of computer systems came from dial up BBS’es–to this day I remember the phone number of long-gone BBS’.

Now before you go off and start posting in a forum, you need to learn a bit about forum etiquette. My first bit of advice–read a few of the existing forum posts. Reading forum posts will give you an idea of the style of that particular forum (is it closer to a neighborhood club or more like a university classroom). Pamela Stevens has a good list of 25 Forum Posting Etiquette Tips that are worth reading.

Photo Freeware (http://www.photo-freeware.net/) has put together a great collection of free photo software. Need a tool to resize your photos, it’s there…a tool to do panoramas…you can find it. Well worth a look around.